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Delillo’s Depiction of the Complexity of JFK’s Assassination

  In Libra , Don Delillo presents a possible interpretation of historical evidence that explains the JFK assassination and clarifies the mystery surrounding it. He constructs this narrative through the compilation of elements from Lee’s supposed backstory, from the stories of potential plotters of the assassination, and even from Nicholas Branch’s confusion as he struggles with overwhelming evidence after the assassination. With this compilation, Delillo demonstrates that this assassination isn’t straightforward at all; its complexity reaches the point where there is no single answer to what exactly happened on November 22, 1963. What I find particularly powerful in Delillo’s revelation of such complexity is his depiction of Lee’s narrative and what influences his actions throughout his life. By analyzing how Delillo depicts this backstory, we can understand the true complexity of the JFK assassination and why still no one knows what truly happened to this day. Starting with Lee’s ...
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The Symbolism of Dana’s Arm Being Stuck in a Wall

               One of the most, if not the most, interesting aspects of Kindred is Dana’s time travel phenomenon, a central element of the storyline throughout the book. This element remains largely unexplained by Butler, adding to its fictionality; although we understand Dana is summoned by Rufus when he’s on the brink of death and she goes back to her time when she feels life threatened, we don’t truly understand how or why these things happen. One scene I found particularly intriguing was when Dana puts this time travel phenomenon to an end by killing Rufus. The moment Rufus dies after Dana stabs him in the side and the back, she finds herself back in the 20th century, but her arm is merged with the wall, right where Rufus left his hand clamped to her arm. In order to free herself, she has to deliberately pull her arm out of the wall, rendering it broken and lost.  Out of all the confusingly unexplained elements within this book, this...
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The Significance of Charlotte and Pick’s Performance in Mumbo Jumbo

     Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo has many characteristics that indicate its alignment with historical writing practices despite being a fictional novel, including the inclusion of imagery, citations, and a partial bibliography. Another one of these practices involves his use of parentheses to add further input to certain details and events he describes. One parenthesized instance I found particularly interesting was the explanation of Charlotte and Pick’s play. In the story, within a plantation house, Peter Pick, “impersonating a cunjah man”, summons Charlotte by reciting the words of a magic book and starts to make love with her, only to realize that this summoning has caused bloodhounds to start approaching (43). He tries “to send her back to where he conjured her” by asking the angel and devil, who just happen to be passing by, to read the words, but these attempts are unsuccessful (43-44). Ultimately, Charlotte reads the words and Pick disappears as the bloodhounds are...
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The Brevity of Charles Victor Faust and Its Revelations of Doctorow’s Writing Intentions

          Ragtime offers a wide variety of interesting characters, both fictitious and historical, each with their distinct personalities and characteristics, and their interactions are a central factor that make the novel uniquely entertaining.  However, some characters receive more attention than others, the main characters notably receiving the majority of the spotlight, while others are briefly shone/introduced then neglected for the rest of the book. Charles Victor Faust is one of these minor characters, introduced into the story as a mascot of the Giants in a baseball game against the Boston Braves. His narrative, however, only lasts to the span of a few pages, his story abruptly ending with the description of a single paragraph, explaining how he was used as amusement by the team, was kicked out when they got bored of him, was sent to an insane asylum and died there (232). When I first read this portion of the book, my first reactions were of ho...
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